05.05.

1990: Eurovision Contest Held in Zagreb

The 35th annual Eurovision Song Contest (Eurovision) was held in Zagreb, Croatia on this day in 1990. The city was chosen since the Croatian band Riva won the previous Eurosong contest in Switzerland with their song “Rock me”. Croatia was at that time still part of Yugoslavia, which was therefore the official hosting country.

There were 22 participants at the Zagreb Eurovision contest, and the winner was Toto Cutugno from Italy with the song Insieme: 1992. He won 149 points, while Joëlle Ursull from France with the song White and Black Blues and Liam Reilly from Ireland with Somewhere in Europe were tied for second place. Both received 132 points. Tajči (Tatjana Matejaš) represented Croatia and her song Hajde da ludujemo won 7th place with 81 points (she received 12 points from Israel and Turkey). Yugoslavia awarded 12 points to Joëlle Ursull.

The contest is significant because it was the first – and last – to be held in a communist country. Popular topics for the songs included calls for democratization and European unity, which should be observed in the context of the political changes that engulfed Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.